The amount of electricity produced from solar installations in the UK since the start of the year has topped the 2024 total, the Financial Times has reported, citing analysis of data from the University of Sheffield.
The total amount of electricity generated by solar panels from January this year to August 16 stood at 14.08 TWh, the FT reported, adding this was some 30% more than generation in the same period of 2024. The publication noted that the amount was enough to power 5.2 million homes for a period of one year.
Of course, the problem with solar is that it cannot power even one home for a period of a week, much less a year, due to its complete weather dependence. Battery storage has been hailed as a solution to this weather dependence problem, but in view of its costs and land footprint, battery storage is still a fraction of what is needed to offset periods when the sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing.
“Despite the UK’s reputation for gloomy weather, solar has been unstoppable in 2025, thanks to a powerful combination of very sunny weather and record capacity on the system,” one analyst from climate advocacy Ember told the Financial Times.
The publication, for its part, pointed out a half an hour on July 8 when solar generation was so abundant, it could cover 40% of the whole country’s demand for electricity, according to the National Energy System Operator. Both the half-hour record and the overall strength in generation were attributed to sunnier than usual weather.
The Labour government of Keir Starmer wants to boost the country’s solar capacity to between 45 GW and 47 GW by 2030 as part of plans to generate as much as 95% of the UK’s electricity from non-hydrocarbon energy sources.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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